A Week of Goodness

All the things I love rolled into a week.

Holiday me!

Hello, how has your week been? (I am actually interested so please feel free to let me know!). Mine has been excellent if I’m honest, a wonderful combination of so many of the things that I love; last weekend was spent in West Wales with a group of warm, friendly and creative women whose company I thoroughly enjoyed; and Mike and I have spent four nights in Devon this week walking, talking, eating, drinking and exploring.

I can highly recommend the Glow weekends that Fforest offer, I think there were around 20-24 of us who had come either with friends or alone (I went alone and it really was fine after the first half hour of ‘what if nobody talks to me’ anxiety!). We spent the weekend being fed with love and care by others, enjoying wanders down to the local beach and trying our hand at a variety of crafts - sewing and botanical dying, wreath making and dipped beeswax candles (which I am definitely going to try again). On the first evening, after supper and gathered around the warmth of a wood burning stove, we were told a story by a local storyteller. It was a new experience for me, in truth I might in the past have thought it wasn’t my sort of thing, but she was truly mesmerising and I loved being entertained in this way as she recounted a version of the traditional tale of The Seven Ravens.

Image kindly shared by a fellow Glow guest

Devon too was lovely, we stayed on the south coast just outside Torquay at The Cary Arms who couldn’t have been more hospitable to Gertie! A bed and doggie welcome pack (tennis ball and chews) awaited her, she was welcome with us in the pub as we ate and was even able to order her very own doggie breakfast in the mornings - madness I know, but she devoured sausage and eggs with gusto and will probably never eat her usual breakfast at home again!

Staying right on the coast we were easily able to walk some of the coastal path (via a funicular railway which is always oddly satisfying), enjoyed some autumn sunshine sitting on the terrace and even watched local seal Sammy catch and eat his breakfast one morning. We visited Paignton where Mike recalled sailing regattas from years gone by and Brixham where we briefly contemplated buying a crab line, but in the end just enjoyed a good wander around the harbour and an excellent lunch at Rockfish where we also chatted to a wonderfully enthusiastic and knowledgeable fishmonger - there will be more fish on the menu here!

Babbacombe Cliff Railway

We arrived home on Friday evening and on Saturday morning I was able to attend my first class at a new local yoga studio. I’ve known Abbie for a couple of years and done yoga with her previously, but her new studio, The Nest, is just beautiful and stretching my body as she led us gently through a yoga flow felt so good. It’s been almost a year since I practised regularly due to various orthopaedic frustrations and surgeries, and I’m really looking forward to being back on the mat.

In The Garden

Body stretched it was then back to reality as we spent the day in the garden catching up, a big garden can feel quite overwhelming at times for there are always soooo many things that could be done, but I try to reassure myself that anything left undone is simply making a better habitat for wildlife! Still, as we pulled up the tomato plants in the plastic palace we discovered a pretty good stash of hazelnuts - the squirrels are feeling a little too much at home I fear!

Our compost heap is doing everything we could hope of it and there is black gold waiting to be spread on the beds in the plastic palace where I plan to grow some winter salads. Some of the beds in the veg garden are now empty and covered in bark mulch (from the trees we had to take down last year) and a cutting garden plan awaits my attention. The hedges are all in need of a trim, and I think this week will be the week that our local contractor comes to do the ones in the field, I always feel a bit sad at seeing them somewhat brutalised, but it’s necessary in order for us to have further sections laid this year.

It is the village harvest festival service today, but I’m ashamed to say that we didn’t realise until this morning and it felt like one too many things to squeeze into the day. I feel kind of bad and a bit sad as it’s a nice time of year to see people, and indeed give thanks for nature’s bounty. On the other hand having just had a really good dog walk I might now find the energy to deal with some of our own bounty which is currently to be found all over the house - a basket of green tomatoes in the boot room, sweet pea pods in the kitchen and a bucket of cooking apples in the utility room sink. I will never be bored here.

In The Studio

There is much awaiting my attention in the studio this week, rhubarb leaves will have their edges smoothed and then I need to load the kiln once again. I have done quite a lot of bisque firing recently which means of course that I now need to move onto glazing, my nemesis. I know that I am procrastinating really, I hate the disappointment of a glaze that doesn’t look as I’d hoped when the piece itself felt just right before. I’m telling myself firmly that it is a question of experience and experimentation and that I must just get on with it, but I almost need someone standing over me to make me do it!

If only my glazing skills were half as good as Mother Nature’s use of colour

This is my 40th consecutive post on Substack, enough time in which to grow a human, so I find myself wondering if I have created something? I certainly haven’t amassed huge numbers of followers, I haven’t made any money from it and I sometimes question why I share my fairly mundane life and thoughts. What I have gained though is a habit of writing weekly, a sort of discipline and something that feels important to me to achieve each week.

October is a full month for me, I am away again for the next two weekends to celebrate a 50th and then a 60th birthday, and then I have two friends coming to stay (individually), so the days will speed away I know but you can still expect to find me in your inbox (email or Substack) at some point each week, and I thank each and every one of you who reads, likes and comments for it encourages me in maintaining this habit.

With love,

Vx